NJ To Ponder Statewide Gun Buyback Program

I pity the gun owning resident of New Jersey. In addition to the draconian regulations on such silly things as what kind of ammo you can use, the state isn’t really interested in being good stewards of their residents’ tax dollars.

The New Jersey Senate Budget Committee will hold a hearing Monday on legislation that would require the state attorney general’s office to operate a statewide gun-buyback program.

During 10 occasional buyback events over the past five years in various parts of the state, residents turned in thousands of firearms for cash payments.

State Sen. Linda Greenstein said her bill would require nine gun buyback events every year.

“This is an attempt to have to have a statewide program where on a regular basis, North, South and Central Jersey, we would have buybacks, three in each location,”she said. “There would be some in urban areas and other types of locations, and it would be an attempt to be frequent in the buybacks that we’re having.”

The goal is to reduce gun violence, said Greenstein, D-Middlesex

That might be the goal, but it won’t happen.

Instead, it’ll be a taxpayer-funded way to fence stolen firearms and dispose of firearms used in crimes.

While the idea of a gun buyback program sounds nice, they fail to understand that criminals aren’t likely to get rid of the tools of their trade without a compelling reason. If they’re used to shoot someone, then sure, it makes sense to get rid of the gun. Otherwise, they’ll hold onto it because, in their mind, they need it.

You wouldn’t expect a carpenter to get rid of his hammer. You wouldn’t expect a mechanic to get rid of his wrenches. Why would you expect a criminal to get rid of his firearm just because you offered him a few bucks?

As we’ve seen repeatedly, most of the guns will be from people who simply have no further interest in owning a gun but don’t want to go through the hassle of selling it. A few will be from people who will get rid of guns that are more of a danger to the shooter than anyone else, and a few will be trying to get away with whatever they can sell, like spent rocket launcher tubes.

The rest will be criminals looking to unload a gun for whatever reason, and since buybacks are all “no questions asked,” it means those crimes will be more difficult to solve.

That means the people who actually commit gun violence will be able to stay on the streets. Since they’ll continue to get their hands on guns, Greenstein’s goal of reducing gun violence won’t happen. In fact, it can make them less safe.

But will someone like Greenstein listen to us, the people who actually look at these things? Probably not.

Instead, we’ll get blamed for any increase in crime because of their well-intentioned but horribly misguided policies.